


Hotpot for Two

by blackfin



Category: DRAMAtical Murder (Visual Novel), DRAMAtical Murder - All Media Types
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-12
Updated: 2015-10-12
Packaged: 2018-04-26 02:13:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4986088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackfin/pseuds/blackfin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After having not seen each other for a while, Aoba decides to surprise Koujaku with a hotpot dinner</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hotpot for Two

**Author's Note:**

> This was a birthday present for tumblr user magemg!

Puffs of almost transparent white steam flowed around his face as Aoba breathed out slowly into the cold, autumn air. The sky over his head was a bright, vibrant blue that stretched as far as the eye could see. In that clear, crystal sky wasn’t a single cloud and the sun was a low spot of white, just hanging over the horizon - almost ready to set but still hanging onto the day. 

Shivering slightly, Aoba pulled his hand out of his pocket and checked his coil to see what time it was. Nearly 4:30 in the evening - good, he was still early and had more than enough time to get to Koujaku’s apartment. He had been worried that his stop by the store to pick up some items for their dinner tonight would make him late but it looked like he would just make it. Koujaku actually wasn’t due to be home until around six but Aoba had a bit of a slightly embarrassing plan that he was doing his best to put into action before Koujaku got home. 

The two of them had very busy for the past few days with Aoba being swamped at the shop as orders and customers came pouring in at a almost constant rate that had left him with barely enough time to even eat during the day and terribly exhausted by the end of the day. Koujaku had been handling a similar situation with his hair-cutting business - customers had appeared through the day for several days, and he had also been having some trouble with a rival, unruly Ribsteez gang that had been giving several residents in the lower residential districts trouble which both his and Mizuki’s team had been working at a constant pace to stop. 

As such, they hadn’t been able to see each other for almost a week and a half. It was a bit embarrassing to admit but it had been harder than he would have ever anticipated to be separated from Koujaku for that long. The two of them had been so busy that they had had barely enough time to message each other. And, given the fact that he was used to seeing Koujaku almost every single day - used to seeing his smile, used to hearing his voice, used to being close to him - it had been a bit lonely for him not to be there. He knew it was normal for couples to be separated sometimes but still, he couldn’t help the fact that he had missed Koujaku and couldn’t deny the fact that he was more than just a little excited to finally be able to see him. 

Sighing at just how excited he was and how much he was looking forward to seeing him, Aoba shook his head slightly before murmuring to himself, “I’m acting like a love struck teenager.”

“Aoba?” Ren spoke up from his side, his fluffy head popping out of the bag that hung from his shoulder. 

“Ah, it’s nothing, Ren. Just talking to myself.”

“It will be nice to see Koujaku.” Ren commented after a moment of silence. “It will also be nice to finally have a break.”

“Mhm,” Aoba nodded in agreement, “Koujaku is probably going to be stressed out and exhausted. I hope he doesn’t mind us doing this.”

“I don’t think he will. He will most likely be very happy to see you, Aoba.”

A slight tinge of heat rose in his cheeks, but he kept his comments to himself. Mostly because he knew any remark he made in return would be unfairly snarky but also because they had arrived at Koujaku’s apartment. Fishing the spare key out of his pocket, he quickly entered the building and made his way up to Koujaku’s place. 

Rubbing his hands together to warm them up, he stopped in front of the apartment’s door, opened it up and slipped inside. It was cold inside but that wasn’t surprising. Shivering slightly, Aoba slipped his shoes off, slipped off his jacket, hung it on the hook and set his back on the floor so that Ren could hop out. 

“Aoba, it would be best to turn on the heater. It is nearly as cold as it is outside in here.”

“Yeah, good call, Ren.”

Crossing his arms over his chest and shivering still, Aoba quickly turned on the lights and moved to the bedroom where he knew the heater was. Struggling to keep his teeth from chattering, he got the heater out, pulled it into the living room and turned on to full blast. He knew it would take a while for it to heat up and thus, get the apartment heated up so he left it alone and moved back to where he had left his bag. 

Kneeling down beside it, he rummaged around inside before pulling out a couple of brown paper bags packed to the brim. Cradling them carefully in the crook of his elbow, he stood back up and made his way to the kitchen. Koujaku’s kitchen was a bit small with just enough room to move around comfortably. It was also obviously pitifully underused - the stove looked as though it had never been touched, there were only the bare essentials inside the fridge and the cupboards were almost empty. The kitchen was meticulously clean, however, with only a slight layer of dust from the disuse. 

Setting the bags down onto the counter, he quickly emptied them of their contents and spread those contents out onto the counter. Setting his hands on the edge of the counter, he quickly looked over the items before him to make sure he had everything he need. What laid in front of him were the perfect ingredients for a perfect hotpot which was perfect to have on a cold day like this. He had gotten all of Koujaku’s favorites as well as many items that he particularly liked. 

Glancing down at his coil, he saw he still had over an hour left before Koujaku said he’d be back home. More than enough time for him to get the ingredients ready, the broth cooked, the donabe and portable burner set up, and have everything cooking before Koujaku got home. It was entirely plausible with the amount of time he had left but he was nervous. 

He wasn’t the best cook around and even though the hot pot he was planning was the easiest thing in the world (according to his Grandma), he was still nervous he’d mess it up. Most times, when he tried to cook anything, he always thought he was doing alright but inevitably ended up doing something wrong or just messing up the dish somehow, which resulted in it tasting horrible. He didn’t want that to happen this time. 

He wanted the two of them to have a quiet, comfortable, warm, pleasant evening together after all the stress the two had endured the past few days. That would be considerably hard if he ended up wrecking what they were going to eat. 

“Aoba.” Ren suddenly spoke up from his side. 

Starting slightly, Aoba turned and looked down at him. Ren was sitting by his feet, looking up at him with his dark eyes. Kneeling down, he picked Ren up and set him on the counter next to the ingredients. 

“Ren, can you pull the recipe for the broth up, please?”

“Yes, I have it pulled up now, Aoba.”

“Okay, good - thank you, Ren.” Aoba gave Ren’s fluffy head a little pat before turning his attention back to the contents in front of him. Taking a deep breath, he set his hands on his hips, leaned back, gave his head a firm nod before clapping his hands together and softly proclaiming, “Yosh, let’s do this.”  
“You’ll do fine, Aoba.” Ren said, his voice soft and sincere. 

Smiling a bit sheepishly, Aoba pat Ren’s head again and nodded in return. Picking up the packet of dashi, he set about looking for a suitable pot to cook the broth in. 

-

It went way better than Aoba could have ever expected. 

He followed the recipe for the dash exactly and, even though he didn’t have a ton of time, took it and went slow, making sure he did everything as specified in the recipe. His reward was a broth that came out exceptionally well - it was the right color, smelled and tasted good. It took more time than he would have liked to get the broth just right but that was alright - as long as he had everything cooking before Koujaku got home, then his plan would have succeeded perfectly. 

Taking the pot off the burner, he covered it and left it alone while he quickly moved into the living room to set up the portable burner. This was another something he was a little bit nervous about since he needed to get the gas canister hooked up, the burner on and heated up to the right temperature to cook everything. Unfortunately for him, the burner that Koujaku had was different from the one he was used to working with but after a bit of fumbling, some advice from Ren, who watched him from the kitchen counter, and a little bit of panic that he might have to wait until Koujaku got home so he could get it running, he finally managed to get it going. 

Sighing in relief, he set his forehead onto the table. Checking his coil, he groaned softly at how much time he had wasted on that. It was only ten minutes until six - Koujaku would be home at any moment. He sighed again before lifting his head and standing. A lot of time had been wasted but he could still make it. 

Moving quickly but still carefully, Aoba filled the donabe with some tasty morsels of food, making sure not to fill it up to much, before pouring the broth into the pot. Giving a bit of a proud grin at how good the hotpot looked already even without everything being cooked, Aoba very cautiously picked up the donabe, moved just as cautiously into the living room and set it onto the burner. 

Brimming with satisfaction, he fiddled with the burner for a moment to make sure the heat was just right before turning and heading back into the kitchen to fetch the rest of the food left over which would be cooked after the first round of eating. Moving everything, including Ren, into the living room with a careful eye kept on the pot to make sure everything was cooking evenly and well, Aoba hummed happily to himself. He couldn’t be sure everything would taste good but for someone of his inexperience, it looked like he had done alright. 

He had just set the last plate holding a mixture of leafy greens when he heard the door to the apartment open. 

“Aoba?” Koujaku’s voice called from the entry way. 

“Ah, I’m here!” Aoba pushed himself up, ignoring how his heart had jumped in excitement at hearing Koujaku’s voice, and hurried towards the entry way.  
They met halfway, nearly bumping into each other. Aoba had been right - Koujaku looked exhausted. There were dark circles underneath his eyes, his skin was a little bit too pale for Aoba’s liking and there was just an air of weariness about him. 

Aoba opened his mouth to gently chide Koujaku but before he could say anything, Koujaku pulled him into a tight, warm embrace. Strong arms wrapped around his back, squeezed him to his chest and Koujaku buried his face into Aoba’s shoulder. Aoba immediately returned the embrace, ignoring the heat that had risen to his face. He set a hand on the back of Koujaku’s head and said in a stern tone, “You pushed yourself too hard.”

Koujaku nodded into his shoulder, rubbing his cheek along the curve of his neck, “Comes with the job.” He said, his voice light and playful but with a tired tone that Aoba couldn’t ignore. 

“Kaba.” He murmured without any malice, patting Koujaku’s head gently. 

They remained like that for a moment more, breathing in each and letting each other’s warmth soak in before Aoba pulled away, jerked his head towards the living room and said, “Come on.”

He turned without waiting for a response from Koujaku and walked back to the living room. Settling him in front of the burner, he began checking the food as Koujaku followed him. 

“Huh? What’s this?”

Knowing he was blushing, Aoba poked around at the food inside the donabe, “Hotpot,” he replied simply. “Go get changed, wash up then let’s eat. It should be done by then.”

There was a moment of silence before he heard a soft chuckle from Koujaku. The chuckle was followed by footsteps coming towards him. Looking up, he found Koujaku standing beside him with a gentle smile on his face. Koujaku leaned down, took his face into his hands and pressed a quick, soft kiss against his lips. The kiss only lasted a second before Koujaku pulled back ever so slightly, pressed their foreheads together and whispered, “I missed you, Aoba.”

A choking, embarrassed sound escape him as he looked away, his cheeks burning. He would never be able to understand how Koujaku could say such embarrassing things so easily. 

Koujaku leaned back, a smile still on his tired face, and pressed a kiss in the center of Aoba’s forehead before standing up and walking towards the bedroom. With his face still burning, Aoba turned back to the donabe, gave the contents another poke before putting in some of the leafy greens to cook during the last few minutes. 

As he waited, Ren trotted over to where he sat and settled himself beside Aoba and went into sleep mode. Running his hand through Ren’s fluffy fur, he patiently waited for Koujaku to come back. Even though he had looked pale and exhausted, he didn’t seem to be too out of sorts. He idly wondered if everything with the rival gang had worked out in the end - Koujaku had said in one of their few messages to each other that he and Mizuki were going to confront the leader of that gang in an attempt to get them to stop. Both Koujaku and Mizuki had reputations that preceded them - there weren’t many in Midorijima who were stupid enough to mess with them so many the force of two of the biggest figures in Ribsteez managed to convince those idiots to back down. 

“That smells really good.” Koujaku’s voice jarred him out of his thoughts. Turning around, he found him walking back into the living room, significantly dressed down in a red long sleeve shirt and jeans. There was a flapping of wings as Beni, would have been sitting on his shoulder, took off, flew over to Ren and immediately settled beside him, nestled comfortably against his fluffy fur. 

“I hope it ends up tasting as good as it smells.” Aoba replied, his voice a bit discouraged. 

Koujaku walked over to him, dropped a gentle kiss on the top of his head before settling beside him, “I’m sure it’s delicious. What made you decide to do this?”

Blushing, Aoba shrugged before saying, “Its cold, and I figured you’d be hungry when you got home. I remembered you saying a while ago that it had been a while since you’ve had hot pot so I thought I’d make it for you.”

“Is that so.” Koujaku said softly. Aoba turned to glance at him and was surprised to find a slight tinge of red along his cheekbones. Koujaku caught him looking but before Aoba could look away in embarrassment, he smiled - a warm, happy smile that caught Aoba off guard. 

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?” 

Smiling a bit bigger with a more teasing tilt to it, Koujaku wrapped his arms around Aoba’s shoulders and pulled him close. Burying his nose into the top of Aoba’s head, Koujaku squeezed him tight. A little surprised but absolutely not adverse to the embrace, Aoba wiggled around a little to make their position a bit more comfortable before sliding his arms around Koujaku’s midsection. Resting his cheek on Koujaku’s shoulder, Aoba completely relaxed into the embrace, smiling a bit himself. It was a bit embarrassing to admit, even if it was only to himself, but he had really, really missed this. This closeness, this familiar warmth, the strong body pressed reassuringly against his own, Koujaku’s scent filling him, surrounding him - he had missed it all. 

“Thank you, Aoba.” Koujaku murmured softly into his hair, turning his head slightly so his cheek was resting against the top of his head. 

Normally, Aoba would have asked for what but somehow, he just knew what Koujaku was thanking him for - for being here, for thinking of him, for returning the embrace, for a lot of things that couldn’t really be expressed in words. Feeling his smile broadening, Aoba squeezed Koujaku a bit tighter and nodded. 

“Did you miss me, Aoba?”

Heat rushed to his face at Koujaku’s softly asked question. It completely caught him off guard, causing his body to jolt slightly. That hadn’t been a question asked in jest or for teasing. It was serious - softly said, curious and inquisitive. Blinking hard several times, Aoba buried his face deep into Koujaku’s shoulder, his heart beating out of control in his chest before nodding and saying quietly, “Mhm, I missed you. I really wanted to see you.”

He heard a soft exhale of air above him before Koujaku somehow managed to squeeze him even more tightly. Gentle kisses were pressed against the crown and side of his head. Heat scalding his cheeks, Aoba lifted his head slightly to give Koujaku better access and was immediately rewarded with a firm but gentle kiss was placed against his lips. Breathing out slowly through his nose, Aoba returned the slow, warm, gentle kiss. Koujaku cupped his face in his scarred, large hands and pulled him even closer as they slid and pushed their lips together. 

Pleasant heat swam though his body, filling his chest with a priceless feeling of content and comfort. Pulling back slightly, he looked up into Koujaku’s red eyes and smiled, “Welcome home, Koujaku.”

A bit to his satisfaction, Koujaku, who had been a bit red but still obviously under control, blushed a dark shade of red and looked slightly startled. He recovered quickly - gave his red a little shake before returning Aoba’s smile with his own, “You’re a dangerous one.”

Aoba laughed before leaning back, grabbing one of the plates from the table and placed it in Koujaku’s hand, “It should be ready now. Help yourself!”

“Thank you for the food!”


End file.
